Landry’s CEO Tilman Fertitta suggested Tuesday it “makes no sense whatsoever” to require companies that receive government relief to hire back all of their labourers.
The casino and restaurant chain executive was asked on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” about New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s design to require companies that receive government aid during the pandemic to rehire the same number of employees they had in preference to the crisis.
“First off, I’m a fan of Mr. Cuomo’s, and I think he’s done a great job, but now he’s in an area that he doesn’t belong in,” Fertitta said. “He be sures nothing about running businesses. You can’t hire everybody back. Our business is not coming back for years.”
Cuomo chance during his daily press briefing on Tuesday that, “it would be such a scandal, and a fraud if these corporations were allowed to let in government money, lay off workers, and then government taxpayers had to subsidize the workers who were laid off.”
There has been a frenzied debate about which restrictions should be placed on companies that participate in the various programs from the Federal Remoteness and the Treasury Department.
The loans to airline companies from the CARES Act, for example, required those companies to avoid layoffs until Sept. 30, but some father since cut hours for their service employees and announced layoffs that will take place after the provisoes expire. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said during a Congressional hearing on Tuesday that he believed the airlines were in compliance with the more often than not reign overs of the program.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren grilled Mnuchin during the same hearing, asking if he would consider billet restrictions around layoffs in other parts of the $2.2 trillion relief package.
Fertitta also continued his invasion to let larger companies accessing the remaining money in the Paycheck Protection Program, saying that his payroll expenses were $150 million a month in conformist times.
Several restaurant chains returned money from the program after the Treasury Department issued updated leadership that said large companies with access to other forms of credit should not access the program. Landry’s answered in April that it had decided to “deny assistance that would be made available to us” to free up money for smaller trains.
Under Cuomo’s plan, Landry’s would be forced to hire back all of the employees it had laid off. The current law does not command that, but Fertitta, who also owns the NBA’s Houston Rockets, said even the current restrictions on larger companies attractive the money was punishing workers.
“Because you work for Landry’s and you work for Tilman Fertitta, you don’t get to come back to work? That’s absolutely unfair,” Fertitta said. “Because I’m not getting the money. The people at the corporate office aren’t getting the money. It’s strictly for Landry’s workers of all of our different concepts, and my people deserved to be treated just as good as everybody else.”
Landry’s has reopened more than 200 of its restaurants and win overed back about 15,000 of the employees it laid off, but those restaurants are running a significant loss, Fertitta said.
“It’s lofty to be open, it’s great to bring some employees back to work, but we’re far from profitable. So right now we’re just churning dollars and waiting it gets better,” Fertitta said.